A time for modesty

A few days ago we authored an “>comments. Most were laudatory, some were nasty and some took issue with our arguments in a civil and rational way.

What has become clear is that, much like a Rorschach test, one will see in the events of the past week what one brings to the issue. That is, those who view the present state of race relations in this country as poor, and far short of where we should be, will interpret virtually everything about the case in light of that world view—Trayvon was racially profiled and “stalked”, the prosecution was botched, the white reaction to the verdict is insensitive, etc. Those who are more sanguine about where the country is in terms of inter-group relations have a very different take on the same set of events.

Obviously, we all have our own prisms that filter how we perceive and interpret issues as laden with policy implications and prescriptions as race, violence, crime rates, etc. The significant challenge for all commentators on the social scene is to recognize the complexity and mystery to so much of human interactions—there are no simple answers or analyses.

In reviewing the various critical communications we have received a common thread emerges—- many critics view virtually all racial disparities in our society as the consequence, directly or indirectly, of discrimination or as the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

One correspondent accused us of ignoring and downplaying “the very real evidence about racial disparities in jobs, schools, housing, poverty levels, mortgage lending foreclosures, arrests, convictions, etc.” He cited these data as if the disparities themselves were dispositive evidence of discrimination that needs to be remedied and faulted us for not offering prescriptions that suited him.

Things aren’t always as they seem. What may look self-evident turns out to be far more complicated and nuanced than having a simple causal relation to bigotry and discrimination. Complex issues involving human interactions, socialization, education, socio-economic status etc. aren’t given to clear cut, unambiguous explanations.

Coincidental with our op/ed and the flurry of comments and criticisms, there were several articles this week that pointed out the error of facilely ascribing racial disparities to discrimination without supporting research.

For example, The New York Times published a lengthy “>article this week reported on the “racial wage gap”—the difference in earning between blacks and whites with similar levels of experience and education. The gap is one of the data points that is often cited as evidence of the lingering effects of discrimination, Jim Crow laws, etc. In a counter-intuitive finding the scholars suggest that the gap “is not directly the result of prejudice or, at least, prejudice conventionally defined.”